Swimming for Straw Hats
by MarchMagnolia
Summary: AU. All Nami wanted was a cute blouse. Instead, she was given Monkey D. Luffy, set with the impossible task of teaching him how to swim. It's a hard job making Beli, especially while having to survive his crazy, "I'm going to be the Pirate King"-based shenanigans. But it's her job to ensure he doesn't drown. Rated for F-ing language and mild violence. LuNa. Other pairings later.
1. Lace Tops and Waterproof Makeup

**Swimming for Straw Hats**

**Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, its plot or its characters. I own absolutely nothing except for this story, but full credit goes to Oda for actually owning One Piece.**

**Enjoy. Read the A/N at the bottom if you're confused about something, may answer some questions. If not, ask in a review.**

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Nami couldn't honestly say that she was the biggest swimmer in the world, or even in the entirety of East Blue. Sure, she'd go to the beach or the pool and do some laps if she felt up for it, but overall, she preferred to relax, rather than include herself in rigorous activity. She was more of the person that liked to lay up on a beach chair, smother herself in tanning lotion and bake for a while with a good book to keep her company. And she liked to do this in complete solitude. Unnecessary noises during her relax-time were a big no-no in her books. As a result, some would find her recent choices rather questionable, like Nojiko, or Genzo. She was sure that Bell-mère was without a doubt looking down at her from heaven's marshmellowy bliss, tapping a sandaled foot and muttering to herself in disbelief: "the shit that girl does for Beli."

And it would be an appropriate thing for her deceased foster mother to wonder about, too, because as Nami stepped through the gates of Loguetown's main public pooling facility, Arlong Park, filled to the brim with half naked adults, teenagers and children – some of whom were obnoxiously loud and some who did not belong in swimsuits with their body shape, she noted, with a grimace – she, too, wondered why the flipping hell she'd even agreed to sign up for the swimming program in the first place.

She recalled Tuesday's events with lacklustre. She had been busying herself by looking in clothing racks outside of a far too expensive store, considering shoving one of the cute tops into her bag, when the awkwardly tall man idled up beside her, a polite smile on his face. She had taken no notice of the man, or his ridiculously large and comical afro until he'd laughed a sort of chilling "Yohohoho" then handed her a multi-coloured flyer rather forcefully.

Nami had opened her mouth to question the man's motives and his stupid flyer as haughtily as possible when he'd pulled out a violin. A freaking violin. Out of nowhere.

Then he sang:

"Please, dear miss,

Would you listen to this?

You look desperate for Beli,

But I am the solution to make you merry!

If you can swim,

Then please do drop in. (He then pointed to an address on the flyer with a bony finger.)

Just teach a hydrophobic friend,

And your poor days will end!

YOHOHOHO!"

A small crowd had gathered by the end of his sort of poem-song, clapping at the entertaining, free-of-charge performance, but Nami wasn't exactly paying attention to them. For a few seconds, all Nami registered out of his entire song was the word "Beli". Beautiful, life-saving Beli. She had sworn that the heavens had answered her prayers, singing "hallelujah" all the while.

The man had bowed, pulling his top hat off to show his gratitude, and then stood straight once more. She'd collected herself and looked at him, realising that she had no idea where his violin had disappeared to – she had been beginning to suspect the afro was the source. After the crowd dispersed, he'd smiled the seemingly harmless yet chilling smile at Nami again.

"In payment for the performance, may I see your panties?"

She'd clobbered him with her bag, screeched an "AS IF I WOULD!" and stormed off, with the flyer half crunched in her hand still, without her having realised.

When she'd gotten home, having driven off her earlier rage, she'd noticed the flyer, read the details, and resigned to herself – she really wanted new cute tops without having to steal them. So she'd dialled the number from the flyer and agreed to every word "Brook", the pervert, had said, without really listening. And that's how she'd landed her new job – by staring longingly at an expensive top.

And now she was regretting it. She was standing by Arlong Park's entrance in her very sexy bikini, realising that the place was everything she hated: large quantities of people, unattractive sights (fat people in bikinis and Speedos did not bode well with her), loud volumes, fatty foods – childishly entertaining things in general, she supposed, were just not her forte. Nami liked productive happenings – like drawing maps, one of her many time-consuming hobbies, and often projects for her Geography class.

During her musings, a child ran near her, screaming loudly about water slides, and she had to physically stop herself from sticking her leg out and making the little bugger trip over and crack his head open. She never wanted children. Ever.

She pulled out the flyer once more and moved away from the entrance, scanning the details quickly. Apparently, she was teaching someone how to swim. She had no idea who this person would be – the "mentors" which was Nami, would be being paired first lesson (today, Saturday) with a "learner". There would be a whole group of mentors, however, so Nami hoped that there would at least be some respectable adults she could bond with, and also hoped that her learner wouldn't be a little brat. But she highly doubted it.

After all, this program was totally crap in her opinion – who hired people off the street to teach people how to swim? It wasn't a very professional program, and Brook, the tall, perverted musician, didn't seem like a very professional person. He'd probably grabbed drug dealers and rapists and hookers to teach the victims- er, the unfortunate souls that had to be taught to swim.

Nami sighed, knowing that she couldn't back out now, but disliked the fact anyway. She pinched the bridge of her nose and tried to calm down. _Just think of the blouse, Nami. The blouse with the pretty lace. Yes, that one. Oh yeah._ _Mmmm-hmmm._

After her clothes-gasm, she noticed that she had five minutes before they were meant to be meeting up, and she decided to put her stuff in the locker she'd hired beforehand and reapply her makeup in that time frame. At least, hopefully, she might gain the interests of some attractive men. With these happy thoughts, she navigated through the crowd, finding the girls' bathroom/locker-room all too quickly with her good direction, and entered. When she did so, there was already someone inside, washing her hands.

The woman was very beautiful in a cruel sort of way, elegance bursting from every pore in just the way she held herself. She had slightly longer hair than Nami's, and it was much, much darker, to the point that it was black – a great contrast to her own short, vibrant orange. The woman's skin was tanned, but it seemed natural, and that was all Nami could really make out. She almost felt threatened being in just the same room as the elder woman, but ignored it, held her head high, and went to the furthest sink, starting to touch up the makeup with confidence.

Needless to say, it surprised her when the woman laughed very softly, and Nami cut her head to face her quickly, making her lip-gloss squirt across her cheek. She swore and washed it off, embarrassed, and glared ferociously at the sink. The woman laughed once more, and Nami looked at her again.

"I'm sorry," Nami smiled sickly sweet, but the threat in her tone was evident. "Is there something that amuses you?"

The woman didn't seem affected by the interaction; she only remained amused as she daintily dabbed at her hands with a paper towel. "I apologise if I've offended you." Nami was shocked at how her voice was like velvet – she spoke as eloquent as she stood. "I just found it amusing that you're clothed to swim, yet you're reapplying makeup. Does it not seem… pointless, to you, as it will wash off?"

Nami was disgruntled, to say the least. "Who says I'm here to swim?" She stuck her nose in the air, attempting to look down on the un-named woman.

"Is swimming not what the pool is for?" The woman turned to her fully after putting the paper towel in the bin, and Nami noticed that she wasn't wearing a swimsuit, but full clothing. On second look, she could see the ties for a swimsuit underneath. Nami suddenly felt incredibly under-dressed in only a bikini and sandals.

"Unless you are here to suntan outside?" The woman added, as an after-thought.

Nami was overall quite embarrassed at being belittled by such a woman. She could put makeup on if she wanted to – she had no right to question her motives… but it's not like the woman would know what she was doing anyway. She wasn't going to look like an idiot. She was going to lie.

"Yes, I am tanning, as a matter of fact." She forced an eye-roll and a flinch-worthy, high-pitched sounding laugh. "Why would I put make-up on if I'm going swimming? That would just be stupid."

"Then I apologise, for I am the one who is in the wrong here." Mystery Woman's blue eyes flitted to the watch on her wrist, then back to Nami. "It seems I have somewhere I must be, so I'll excuse myself now. Please, enjoy your time sunbaking." She then walked out, leaving Nami feeling like poop and wishing she could be as mild-mannered and poised as her. As much as she really disliked her, she kind of admired everything about her at the same time. It really pissed Nami off.

She turned back to the mirror, trying to collect herself. She wiped the lip-gloss off begrudgingly, but left the mascara and eyeliner – she was pretty sure they were waterproof, anyway. Nami checked herself out, decided that she looked pretty damn smokin' – especially her boobs, _like wow_, she had to give herself props for buying such a great swimsuit. Before she could continue gloating to herself about her looks, though, it abruptly came to her that she had somewhere to be. Two minutes ago.

Nami quickly put her bag in her locker and legged it out of the bathroom, dodging through crowds of people, past the wave pool, the kids pool, the diving pools, the spas, the sauna – and then she saw the big pool, mainly used for lapping, where she was supposed to be.

Brook stood by a group of people, his afro as obvious as ever, singing them another one of his stupid songs. She didn't know why, but she was kind of glad she was missing out on it – he was a good singer and good at the violin, but he really quite annoyed her. But then he stopped, and began to pair everyone off, and she swore, again. It was still too far away, and dang nabbit, she had had enough of being embarrassed – she wasn't going to turn up late, after everyone had already been paired.

Nami ran, and ran, and ran until she reached the opposite side of the pool, directly adjacent from Brook and the group, though he still hadn't noticed her. But she hadn't slowed down any, even as the water came up rapidly. Her sandaled foot landed, half off the edge, half still on, her entire body tensing for what was to come, and without any logical reasons as to why it would help in her current situation, she jumped.

In her defence, Nami had always been a good jumper. She'd always come first in long jumps and high jumps whenever she was forced into athletic activity at school. She didn't really know why, but she was pretty damn incredible at jumping, setting records all the time. Still – this didn't mean her decision to attempt to jump over a whole width of a pool was a smart idea. Nami would have liked to blame it on not thinking properly – but she had been thinking as clear as day. She had just been desperate. And desperation had made the entire group turn to see the red-head jump through the air, managing to get to almost half way into the pool – an incredible feat – before plunging into its watery depths.

A huge splash erupted from the water, silencing all people nearby as they watched it rise and fall with a loud crack that resembled a gunshot. Silence passed by for a while, and Nami did not resurface. The group remained silent, until a male member spoke up.

"Um, shouldn't someone go help her… in case she's drowning?" The young boy asked timidly, holding the rim of his red top hat with small hands to half cover his face, but no one answered him. Most were still in shock, remaining silent. But this did not last long.

"WOAH-OHHH!" A boy shrieked from the back of the crowd as pushed forward to the front, jumping from foot to foot excitedly. "That was so awesome!" He paused, looked towards the water, and hit it with his hand, making a small splash. "Hurry up, come back up and do it again!"

Despite his yells, Nami did not do so. She was currently at the bottom of the pool, holding her breath until she was blue, not wanting to go back up. She had tried to stop herself from being embarrassed, and had totally made it a lot worse. The day had not gone to plan at all. But she inwardly sighed nonetheless, and due to her lack of breath, was about to push herself back up despite the embarrassment when she heard and felt the second big splash.

The boy sunk like a rock, landing beside her at the bottom. He hadn't closed his mouth when he'd jumped in, and was holding his throat in panic as he swallowed the water. He kicked around and jerked but the guy was dead weight in the water. She could hear yelling and panicking from above the surface, and grabbed him by his red vest. She had no idea why he had even jumped in, or whether he was pushed, but it was now up to her to save his scrawny ass.

Not surprisingly so, he was very light, as he was pretty damn skinny. However, she hadn't had sufficient oxygen for a while so the swim up was a difficult one, especially as he continued to thrash, grabbing a hold of her by the waist and dragging her down further so. He tried to speak underwater, and she smacked him in the head as she struggled to swim. Then they finally managed to break from the restraints of the water and gasped for much needed oxygen.

"I'M DROWNING!" The boy suddenly screamed, trying to climb on top of her head.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?" Nami spluttered loudly, trying to keep both herself and the monkey above water. "GET OFF."

She didn't notice the members of the group all working together to get floaty devices until one of them was thrown in, smacking into her face and making her groan. Drowning was looking better by the minute.

"Luffy, grab hold of the floaty!" Another boy with an abnormally long nose and black curly hair yelled. He jutted a thumb towards himself, standing tall and boastfully. "For I, Captain Usopp, will reel you in with my muscly arms!"

The boy – Luffy – didn't even hesitate in launching himself off of Nami (making her sink again for a couple of seconds) and grabbing onto the floaty device. The remaining members shoved Usopp out of the way of the rope attached to it, tugging the floaty and Luffy to the edge. They pulled him up onto Earth once more, and he fell onto his back, breathing hard, his chest rising and falling in a fast pattern. Usopp lay beside him, his face having been smashed into the pool's tiled floor, his Pinocchio nose bent at an awkward angle, and his bum high up into the air. Then Luffy shot up from his sitting position rather abruptly, his heavy pants having eased.

To Nami's major surprise, he began to laugh hysterically, slapping his hand against the tiles and clutching his stomach with the other. She really failed to see what was so funny as she grabbed onto another floaty, which had been tossed in, and was helped to the ground by a blonde guy and a blue-haired girl. The blonde was gushing something at her, but she had so much water in her ears that she couldn't really understand. She just smiled at both and said a breathy, "thanks".

The woman smiled and left her to get the water out, while the blonde guy remained, swaying side to side, and she swore she saw hearts in his eyes as his curly eyebrow wiggled happily. But she was more interested in the Luffy kid, and she didn't really know why. He was short, skinny, and not much of a looker at all. But there was something strange about him that she just couldn't place her manicured finger on. Maybe it was the scar.

Pinocchio-nose sat up abruptly, cracked his nose back into place without much effort (as if he had gotten used to doing such an odd thing) and leapt over to Luffy, starting to shake the boy by his shoulders and scream at him. Nami could see a lot of remnants of spittle flying out during the tantrum, and she tried not to gag. Luffy just wiped it away without really looking interested.

"Why did you do that, you moron!? Are you trying to get yourself killed!?" Usopp comically continued to shake him until his character drastically changed before Nami's very eyes. His hand flew to his chin, stroking it thoughtfully. His voice went deeper as he said, "ah, but I would have never let you drown, Luffy, my dear subordinate. I have faced harsher seas, stronger foes, than you could ever imagine and…" He continued to ramble endlessly.

Luffy, still looking positively bored, and even tired, hardly seemed to notice his own hand land on Usopp's face and push him away as he yawned.

"L-l-l-luuuuffy! What are you doing?! Let the mighty Usopp go at once or I fear I must unleash my amazing power-"

Luffy pushed Usopp's curly head into the ground again, and the nonsensical blabbering became muffled. Then Luffy's eyes cut to Nami, a grin slowly spreading large across his tanned face, making the scar on his cheek wrinkle happily.

"Why did I jump in?" He repeated the question, like he considered Usopp stupid for asking such a thing. "That's 'cause she wouldn't come up."

He said that one line as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, and she couldn't understand why. What sort of person jumped into a pool, without knowing how to swim, to save a stranger? Not a normal one, at least.

His eyes remained fixed on Nami's, and hers reluctantly locked onto his, too. His were deep and black, but friendly. Hers were dull and brown, but apprehensive. The eye contact only occurred for a brief moment before she snapped her head away, brows knitting together.

"I hadn't needed any help." She seethed through gritted teeth, drilling holes into the water with her glare. "You ended up being the one saved, loser."

"Yeah." He nodded, not even needing to think about it. "Thanks."

She reluctantly met his childish gaze again, puzzled at his bizarre behaviour.

"Now, now, everyone calm down," Brook spoke up suddenly, and turned to Nami. "That was quite the jump you just performed, Miss Nami. I was worried you were not going to show up, but I was very wrong. You just wanted to start straight away, didn't you?"

Nami didn't really know what to say. "Er, yes. That's exactly what I had in mind."

"Well it was a brilliant performance! And saving Luffy like that, how marvellous! Yohohoho!" He chuckled to himself, then his lips curved upward as he apparently realised something. "I think that you two will be very good partners."

Oh, no.

Luffy's mood brightened up even more so (if that were possible), jumping to his feet. He reached behind him, pulling a straw-hat she hadn't seen before onto his black, unruly mop. She realised it was connected to a string which had been around his neck the entire time.

"Coooooool~! Go do that jump again, I wanna watch!" He clapped his hands, giddy, jumping over to her, completely unfazed that his clothes were sopping wet.

Nami scooted away from him uncomfortably, cutting her head to Brook. "But-"

"Everyone else has been paired up now," Brook cut in, positively beaming at how well his program was going. "I'll call out the teams, go sit with your partner when I call. Okay:

Team One: Mentor, Zoro. Learner, Chopper.

Team Two: Mentor, Nami. Learner, Luffy.

Team Three: Mentor, Sanji. Learner, Vivi.

Team Four: Mentor, Usopp. Learner, Kaya.

Team Six: Mentor, Franky. Learner, Robin."

Everyone did as instructed, and Nami took it upon herself to look around at the groups as Luffy plonked down beside her a little bit too hyperactively, legs crossed, while she sat with her knees to her chest. The remaining members were all weird-looking characters, and she took note of pairing the names to the faces, but she paused when she looked upon the last group. Nami literally froze in place when she made contact with the feminine, blue eyes she'd seen before. The woman smiled at her knowingly, and Nami recalled that her name was Robin from Brook's list.

"It's nice to see you again. Lovely day out for a suntan, isn't it?" She asked, her laughter all fluttery and harmonic. Her blue-haired companion, who seemed to be mimicking Elvis Presley in hair-dos, looked between Robin and Nami quizzically, but decided he didn't really care and started to comb his hair instead. Luffy, on the other hand, was picking his nose, and then naming the boogers.

"I'll call this one Humphrey." He decided proudly, but Nami wasn't paying any attention to him.

She gave a weak smile at Robin, and a pathetic, awkward laugh left her mouth, contrasting her earlier, fake, high-pitched laugh. "Uh, yeah. Hi." She then bowed her head and did not meet Robin's eyes again. Luckily, Brook decided to speak again before the beautiful woman could decide to continue the uncomfortable conversation.

"Any who, without further ado!" He started in a singsong voice, beginning to sit down. All the pairs were now sitting next to each other in a horseshoe sort of pattern, making the gap a perfect place for Brook to sit in. As he did so, Nami could hear his thin, long bones crack under the strain, and she thought that he looked almost as thin as a skeleton. She saw him place his cane at his side, realising she'd not noticed him have it before – obviously she hadn't been studying him too carefully. She eyed the cane, wondering if the man was ill.

"Welcome, now that everyone is here. My name is Brook, as you should know by now. I'd like you all to be aware that I have created this program for one reason, and one reason only." Brook suddenly became very serious as he spoke. His eyes narrowed as he surveyed the crowd, and Nami felt herself hold her breath.

The little guy with the red top hat pulled it further down over his eyes, leaning into the sleeping green-haired man at his side to hide from Brook's penetrating stare, and Usopp, now with his face out of the ground, was shaking in fear at the mere glower the elder man possessed. The pause was so dramatic; everyone (except Luffy, who was wiping snot on his shorts, and the sleeping guy, and Robin, who Nami was quickly suspecting was a serial killer) had become completely stagnant. No blinking, no breathing.

"And that one reason is," He paused again, his facial expression unreadable. "For panties."

The reaction was instant: shoulders sagged, sighs of relief escaped mouths, and a "that wasn't super" was heard in the direction from Blue Elvis. Nami, rather than sigh in relief, felt an insane urge to strangle Brook with his very own tie.

His eyes then went to her, his lips peeling back into a polite grin despite the incredibly perverse vibes she was getting from him. She knew that she was an idiot for only wearing a bikini at that very moment, and was about to act on her earlier fantasy, when a black, leather shoe smacked dead centre into Brook's unsuspecting face.

The blonde, curly-browed man stood up and retrieved the shoe very quickly after, hissing out a quiet threat: "don't go asking such favours from such a beautiful lady."

Nami kind of, sort of blanched at what was happening.

The young man then turned to Nami and abruptly bounded over to her in graceful leaps and flailing arms. She tried to scoot a bit away but he dropped to his knees directly in front of her as he attempted to pull a charming smoulder, but looked more like a perverse ape than anything.

"My name is Sanji, my darling, red-headed beauty. I will forever be your saviour, as long as you allow me~!" He cooed in an attempt to be romantic, quickly shrugging off his black jacket and draping it across her shoulders. After an unattractive wink, he bounded back over to his spot in glee before she could even reply. He didn't stop trying to make eye contact with her, though.

She was still quite gob smacked by the whole ordeal, to be honest. But "Sanji" hadn't specifically touched her, or anything – just gave her his jacket, which was kind of neat, so she supposed that he was a bit better in her books than Brook was. But he was still creeping the hell out of her with the constant little kisses he blew at her.

What added to her increasing frustration, though, was that he wasn't doing it to her alone – he was also flirting with Robin, the blue-haired girl that had helped her earlier, and a pale blonde-haired girl who sat next to Usopp. This, all at the same time, which was actually quite impressive in its own right. However, because he was sitting next to the blue-haired girl, his learner, she was receiving most of the unwanted attention. Still, she was polite about it, which was more than Nami would have done if he had tried to pull a smooth move on her.

When she looked back to the front, Brook seemed unaffected by Sanji's powerful shoe-attack, and carried on quite happily, "For our first lesson, we will not be doing all that much that is water-based, unfortunately. I have decided that we should all properly introduce ourselves and bond together to unite as a big happy family instead! So please, let me begin to set you all on your way. You are already aware of my name. One thing about me is that I am a musician…"

Luffy looked up suddenly, his eyes bugging out. "A musician!? Awesome! Show me!"

Usopp cut in. "He played a song before, Luffy. Of course he's a musician."

"I didn't hear no song." Luffy looked really confused, but shrugged.

Usopp jabbed him in the side. "That's cause you were busy wondering what dinosaur meat tastes like, idiot."

Brook carried on despite the interruption, "…and my afro is the greatest thing about me." He puffed the afro up with his hands more so to exaggerate his love for his afro, and Luffy, Usopp and the kid with the hat all gaped at the awesomeness. "While the main reason for my founding of this program was for the panties and swimsuits… this dream would have never been possible without Laboon…" He then trailed off.

"Who is Laboon?" Nami asked immediately, thirsting for knowledge like a hungry wildebeest.

Brook hesitated, a glimmer of something sad passing through his eyes, before it was gone. "Why don't we move on to you, Miss Nami? Please, don't hold back." He smiled tightly, and she could see that he didn't want to elaborate on the 'mysterious' Laboon further.

She sighed, a little irked at how everybody's stare was then performed on her. She sat up confidently, despite this fact, and stared back. "My name is Nami. My favourite food is Mikans, and I live outside of town, on an Orchard with many Mikan trees." She smiled briefly, but then turned the look to a glare. "But I'm only here for the Beli, and if I get another request to show something inappropriate…" She shot the murderous look at Brook. "I will be charging double the price."

After Brook screamed in fear at the look, and Sanji blew multiple more kisses at her, she turned more or less innocent again and nudged Luffy. "Your turn, booger."

He looked around at everyone staring at him, and then pointed to himself unsurely. "Huh, me?"

"Yes, you." Nami was grounding her teeth together at the dumb ass. "Tell us something about yourself."

"Oh." He grinned and laughed with a "Shishishi". Nami wondered why no one in East Blue laughed like a normal person. "I'm Monkey D. Luffy."

"And?" Nami prompted.

"And I'm gonna be King of the Pirates." He still wore the big grin on his face, lightly running his fingers over the brim of his straw hat as if it was a daily habit.

Nami reacted by palming herself in the face. She didn't usually swear, but _fuck,_ she was going to lose her mind teaching this kid. Pirates hadn't sailed in years – where would he get a ship? A crew? There wouldn't even be buried treasure. If there was indeed treasure, she probably would have become a pirate herself already.

She looked at Brook, and pleaded, "Can we please move onto the next person now?"

"Ooh! Ooh! Me, next." Usopp piped up, waving his arm around. When no one objected, he cleared his throat and stood up, posing. "My name is Usopp… and I have two very amazing confessions."

Luffy looked up at him in amazement and red top-hat kid peeked out from under his hat, both anticipating the awesome story they were bound to hear. Nami really couldn't remember the smaller kid's name, and she hadn't even seen his face since he'd been pulling his hat down over it the entire lesson.

"One, I am widely known as Captain Usopp! Even though Luffy here says he'll be King, he's very clearly wrong, for I am the true pirate. AHAHAAHAHAHA!"

"Shut up, Usopp! I'll come over there and beat you up!" Luffy growled, standing up and pulling his arm back like he was going to run up and punch him.

Usopp shrieked and sat back down, making Luffy happy again. He sat down too, black eyes glimmering in anticipation again. "What's the second confession?"

"T-two…" Usopp started shakily, and then seemed to regain his confidence again when Luffy kept smiling like a kid. "I… am the world's greatest Superhero! But I can't tell you of the name of the superhero, or it would ruin my secret identity."

Usopp was then bombarded with various questions from the two over-excited dunces, like, "are you really that amazing, Usopp?!", "awww please tell us!", "do you have a cape?". Usopp would smile and nod or shake his head like he was the wisest person in the world. The bombardment didn't last long, despite Usopp obviously enjoying it, however. He raised a hand into the air suddenly, stopping Top-Hat and Luffy.

"That's enough," he said, in his fake manly voice. "I am tired. Leave me."

The two then jumped back over to their previous areas and nodded vigorously, like Usopp was their idol or something. Well, he was a supposed "Superhero" or something, but Nami really doubted that.

"How do you and Luffy know one another, Long-Nose-kun?" It was Robin, smiling politely, and still looking amazing even when she was sitting on the floor.

Usopp rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, seeming a bit confused at the nickname he received, but didn't question it. "We've been friends since we were little… it was really quite a magnificent story, how we met. I was sailing my ship in a horrible storm and then-

"He was getting picked on by some bastards first day of school so I kicked their asses." Luffy cut in plainly. Usopp deflated, but seemed rejuvenated when the woman beside him complimented him on his tale. Usopp blushed and got real fidgety, and Nami decided to perhaps involve herself if Usopp formed a crush on the pretty blonde. For a fee, of course. Nami's help was never free.

"B-but yeah," Usopp continued. "Luffy's never been good at swimming, so I tried helping him, but even though I'm an amazing teacher, it wouldn't work with him. So when we heard of this we leapt at the opportunity."

"Heard there was meat." Luffy added in, then gasped as he realised that there was no meat, and started to sniff like a dog to try and smell for some.

Robin seemed to understand the story, and seemed content with it, and thus nodded. Usopp then whispered something to the pale woman beside him and she turned to look at everyone, realising it was her turn.

When all was silent, the girl quietly began her introduction. "Um, hello. It's very nice to meet you all. My name is Kaya." An uncertain pause ensued. "I, uh, I've been sick for a long time and I've recently gotten better, but I'm not sure how long it will last." She explained, looking sad, and Usopp especially looked very upset at what he had just heard. But then she smiled again, and Nami herself had to admit it was dazzling. "Because I've always been sick, I've never really learned how to swim, because I don't often go outside – but I like to put the free time to use and study medicine. Not to get off on a tangent, though… I've just always wanted to learn to swim, and I've decided to finally go ahead with it. So… please teach me well, Usopp-san."

Usopp, needless to say, was putty in the hands of the pure being beside him. He jerked his thumb towards himself again, and eased her worries with an optimistic, "Yosh! Just leave it to Captain Usopp!"

Next up for introductions was Top-Hat, finally. He was really, really small, she noticed. Short, curly brown hair protruded from his hat, and his skin was brown, too. He looked up to meet everyone's eyes, a blush evident on his face, and that's when Nami saw it. She blinked, rubbed her eyes, and even considered if she was drunk or not. But her eyes weren't deceiving her. The kid's nose was blue. _Blue._

He saw her eyes on his nose and looked away, blushing madly and looking quite annoyed. "My… my name is Tony Tony Chopper!" He blurted out awkwardly. The kid was really insecure, obviously, and she decided to stop looking at his nose for his sake. He was really cute, though. "But it's okay to call me Ch-chopper. I um, too, dwell in the medicines. I'm actually kind of already a doctor – I've finished all of my studies, despite my age. I just haven't gotten around to swimming yet, with all the studying and… I don't like the heat, much, so… being able to swim and cool down in summer would be nice." He finished and sat there quietly, not looking at anyone.

It was no wonder everyone was staring at him with their eyes bugged out. The kid looked like he was fourteen. He was the bloody real-life Doogie Howser, but with a blue nose.

"That's… super!" Franky – she recalled his name from Brook's list – or Blue Elvis, as she liked to refer to him as, bellowed. Everyone else murmured their agreements.

"Shut up, you bastards~" Chopper giggled, not looking angry at all. Rather, he blushed and twiddled with his thumbs, starting to smile. "That doesn't make me happy. Not at all…" He finished the sentence with an adorable giggle, and despite being confused about his behaviour, Nami really wanted to cuddle the little guy.

A loud snore jerked everyone out of their stupor, and everyone cut their eyes to the man next to Chopper. Nami really couldn't believe that the guy was _still _sleeping. The entire lesson he had been doing so. She was pretty sure that even when she'd jumped into the pool he'd been sleeping, and Chopper had just sat down next to him to make the horseshoe shape. The man hadn't moved an inch.

The guy had a dark green bandana around his head, just showing off his green sideburns. She didn't know whether the hair was real or fake, but either way, she supposed he really liked the colour green. He even had a green haramaki, which adorned three katanas- wait, what? Nami looked again, and yes – he had three katanas. Real ones – Nami knew expensive things when she saw them. His right hand rested on the hilt of one, surprisingly not lax – he was holding the hilt like he was about to unsheathe it, despite that he was evidently snoozing, leaning against the wall with his head lolled to the side. No one could fake snores like those ones.

She saw Sanji rise again, and she inwardly groaned as he started walking over to the sleepyhead. _Don't tell me he's into the men, too._ _I don't care if he swings both ways, but dang nabbit, I do not want to watch him flirt with every single attractive person he sets his eyes on, female or male._

But her instincts were wrong. So very wrong. Sanji stopped in front of the man, Chopper edging away, looking absolutely petrified after seeing Sanji's expression, which Nami couldn't see. And then his leg was a blur as it swung out with such purposeful grace, moving to collide it against the tanned face. She heard a bit of a thud and a grunt, but she could hardly see what had happened. One thing she did know, however, was that Sanji's leg was still in the air, and he murmured an irritated, "shit."

Before she got up herself, she felt a hand grab her arm. Luffy yanked her up and dragged her around to where Brook was to get a better view of the attack. Nami, surprisingly, didn't even tell him to stop, and didn't care that the hand holding her arm probably had boogers on it. She just wanted to know what had happened.

And then she saw it, her mouth hanging slightly open. Luffy, beside her, began cheering.

A sheathed sword had blocked Sanji's foot. It was held only by one tanned hand, though it visibly shook from the strain. Sanji grunted and tried to push harder against the sword with his foot, but they were both at a struggling stalemate. Mr. Green had one eye open, staring at Sanji with a very miffed expression. Sanji, who was all kisses and hearts beforehand, didn't seem bothered. He actually looked quite badass and nonchalant. What he did next surprised her further; he reached into his pocket, and pulled out a cigarette and a lighter. He lit up, and she vaguely wondered if they were allowed to smoke inside. After a second, she realised that that was a stupid question. He just didn't give a crap. But the large pool was at the very end of Arlong Park and seemed to be mostly reserved for their group, so no prying eyes of an outsider noticed.

The green-dude opened both eyes, finally acknowledging Sanji properly. "Do you have a fucking problem?" He didn't bother to hold back his confusion and anger. Or his language, for that matter.

Sanji exhaled some smoke, shoving his other hand in his pocket. "Yeah, as a matter of fact, I do, shit-head. You were snoring vulgarly in front of the women. Do you have any respect for these beauties at all?"

Nami was really trying to remember the guy's name while the two sort of talked. She thought back, trying to remember what Brook had said when listing the groups. It was kind of a funny name… one that reminded her of a movie. She glanced at his swords, and then it hit her. Zorro, the masked, Spanish swordsman. That was it. His name was Zoro, and he too, was a swordsman. He just wasn't Spanish, nor was he wearing a mask.

Zoro glanced behind Sanji's body lazily, his dark green eyes looking at all four women. He then looked back to the blonde, and with a smirk tugging at his lips, said, "they all kind of look like hags to me."

Nami snapped. "What the hell did you just say, you stupid, little…" She stepped forward to murder him, but Luffy held her back. She turned to look back at him, and he just shook his head, quite seriously, which was a unique change.

"It's their fight." He said simply, and left it at that.

She heard movement and scuffling behind her and turned back to the fight to see Zoro rising now, and Sanji stood on two feet, looking even more pissed than before. The rest of the group were quite unsure how to react, and Brook was trying to stop them politely, but wasn't even heard by the two men.

"How dare you insult these beautiful flowers! You damn… Marimo!" He spat, getting ready to kick the shit out of Zoro. Nami found it intriguing that he had one hand in his pocket, the other holding onto his quickly burning cigarette. He didn't look like he was going to use his hands at all. Zoro, on the other hand, wielded one out of three swords, but hadn't unsheathed it. She hoped it would remain that way.

"The hell did you just call me, curly-brow?" He sneered. Then his thumb pushed his sword out just ever so slightly, ruining Nami's dreams, and Sanji bent his knees a little bit, prepared to attack.

"You heard me, moss boll." Then he realised the comment made towards his eyebrow and flushed a little in embarrassment. "Shut the fuck up."

And that was the signal for the fight to begin.

And that was Nami's signal to intervene, whether Luffy liked it or not.

"STOP RIGHT NOW!" She shrieked, pulling Sanji's jacket off and waving it around to try and get their attention. And it worked. They both looked over. Zoro looked at her uninterested, and Sanji's eyes were practically glued to her chest.

"Oh my~!" Sanji exploded. Zoro nearly gagged at the action.

"If you two continue any further, you pay me a fee. Five thousand beli per successful hit." She chucked Sanji his jacket and rested her hands on her hips, jutting her chin up in the air indignantly. Sanji caught the jacket and smelled it, sighing in bliss.

Zoro glanced at him out of the corner of his eye and gave him a weird look, then turned back to Nami. "The hell, woman? I aint paying no fee. Get out of here."

"No?" She stepped up to him, a glower covering her face. Then she grabbed his shirt, yanking him down close to her, a twisted grin spreading across her lips. "Don't kid with me, boy. You don't get a choice." Then she pushed him back and he stumbled, a little disorientated. Then he noticed his poor-ass looking wallet in her hands, and she started shuffling through it.

"You goddamn witch, how the hell did you get that?!" He reached for it, but she stepped back.

She pouted. "You've got hardly anything in here. What a pity." She pulled out fifty beli then chucked the wallet back to him. "Either way, you get what you deserve. No fighting while we're meant to be teaching people here, or I'll be taking more than that, got it?"

Zoro could not wipe the pure look of rage off of his face. He shoved his wallet back into his haramaki and shook his head, unable to get the venom out of his words: "go rot in hell. I didn't sign up for this bullshit."

He turned and slammed his shoulder into Sanji, who was considerably skinnier and fell backwards into the pool with a splash, his smoke sizzling out in the water straight away. Zoro started to storm off when Chopper's quiet voice reached him.

"But… what about my swimming…?"

Zoro stopped. He turned back briefly, his face stoic. When he saw the look on Chopper's face, however, it softened slightly. "I'll be here tomorrow, kid," he assured, voice still hard and strained.

Chopper seemed relieved, and Brook took Zoro's calmer demeanour as a sign to speak up. "We did not get to hear your introduction, Mr. Zoro."

Zoro's bad mood almost immediately flared again. "Roronoa Zoro. I'm skilled in three-sword style, so don't make me use it." He snapped, and then he turned on his heel and left for good.

Sanji, who was just climbing out of the pool, his suit completely saturated, bid him farewell by flipping him off. Zoro's back was turned, and didn't get to the see the kind gesture on his way out.

Nami sighed, glad that the situation was resolved, and turned around only to be met with a disapproving expression on Luffy's face.

"Don't look at me like that." She ordered, walking back over. "They were going to destroy this place."

"I wanted to see the fight." He whined, his eyebrows knitting together. "You never interrupt a man's fight, you know? It's a rule."

"Well too bad, I already did, and I don't regret it one bit." She shoved the fifty beli into her bikini top, and sat down with him to finish the introductions. "Don't try to tell me otherwise."

He surprisingly didn't, and she wasn't sure if that should worry her or not. But she didn't know the guy, and couldn't care less of what he thought.

The remaining members spent another half hour or so getting through the final introductions, and she learned a lot about the rest of the people.

Even though Chopper had already had his turn, Luffy had decided to interrupt Brook and ask the kid about his nose quite rudely. Chopper didn't exactly look too happy about the question, and even spared frightened glances at everyone. However, he looked about ready to open up until Luffy had gotten impatient and dumbly asked, "Are you some kind of monster?"

Needless to say, Chopper's mouth remained closed for the rest of the session, and they moved on after Nami had punched Luffy in the face and made him beg for forgiveness.

Sanji was actually a cook; he was working in the Baratie seafood restaurant, which was infamous for being the only restaurant in East Blue that floated on water. She'd heard many good things about it, especially about the amazing view it had. Previous gossips also told her of how expensive it was there, and she decided that she'd have to work her magic later to get a free meal out of him. But Sanji apparently loved the water, and that's why he wanted to help people to swim. He called the sea his home, but she wasn't sure what he exactly meant by that.

His learner was Vivi, the blue-haired woman. She had apparently moved all the way from Alabasta, the desert city, because she wanted to live somewhere not so dry – so she'd travelled from the Grand Line all the way to East Blue. As a result, with all the seas and pools and water-based activities, she decided that learning to swim was the best thing she could possibly do. The information Vivi gave about herself was very limited, however, and she wouldn't even give out her surname.

Franky, AKA Blue Elvis had many things in common with Usopp. They both loved to build and tinker with things, though Franky was apparently much better at it than Usopp was. He had come from the Grand Line's water city, Water 7, and that wordlessly explained his love for swimming. He spoke a lot of two blokes, Tom and Iceburg, but Nami wasn't really sure of what to make of the two characters. However, she felt pretty good that she wasn't the only one there wearing swimwear, as Franky was wearing his own Speedos. To be honest, he had really good legs for them, but she wasn't about to say that out loud. He also had this thing with saying the word "super". She didn't think life was _that_ super, to be honest.

Then it came to be Robin's turn. Oh, how Nami had been dreading it, but it turned out to be rather interesting. Robin was an archaeologist and an ancient historian, and she was actually going to start working as an Ancient History teacher at Loguetown's High School. Nami didn't mention it, but she would too be going to that school when holidays had finished. She decided that she'd surprise Robin when school started. Sanji had blurted out that he'd be going to that school too, but otherwise, no one else mentioned if they were or not. It kind of made her curious, but she didn't speak up.

Due to Robin's extensive knowledge, Nami had also indulged in telling her about her geographical knowledge. It had felt good to talk to someone about mapping and weather changes and the like – like, _really_ good. Due to this, however, Robin had begun to call her "Navigator-san" and Nami wasn't exactly sure why. But she let her do so, as long as she wasn't grumpy with the lie she told before in the bathroom.

And then it was over, done, complete. The first lesson was finished, and all they'd done was sit there – apart from Zoro and Sanji's little tiff. She was also sure she had everyone's name down pat. She stood up as everyone began saying their goodbye's and that they'd see each other the next day, when she noticed Luffy was staring at her intently, his finger back in his nose.

"What?" She snapped. "If it's about before-"

"Your face-up is all running." He cut in simply, flicking a booger across the room.

"Make-up," she corrected, grossed by his antics, and then glowered in realisation. Her eye makeup clearly wasn't waterproof, then. And she'd sat there for like, how many hours, looking like she'd been crying? "Shut up."

He pulled his finger out of his nose, seeming to deflate suddenly. "I'm hungry." He whined and looked at her, a huge frown on his face. "Buy me meat."

She felt her eye have a spasm. She placed a finger on her eyelid to make it stop. "No." She looked up and saw Usopp impatiently waiting a bit away. "Usopp is waiting for you, you know?"

Luffy turned to him suddenly and grinned. "USOPP, BUY ME FOOD!" He screamed and ran after to the long nosed man, who in turn started bolting towards the door, screaming, "BUY IT YOURSELF, IDIOT!"

She let herself out slowly and headed towards her electric scooter – the waver edition, a new model that she'd gotten for a good price after flashing some cleavage. The waver apparently had this gear in it, which allowed it to go on water. She couldn't wait to test it out.

Nami looked around, her hand settling on the handle of the waver. Everyone was heading off separately, at their own paces. Some, like Brook, began walking in a certain direction with the much needed use of his cane, and some such as Kaya and Vivi were picked up by anonymous cars. Most, like Sanji, Robin and Franky, got into their own vehicles. In Franky's case, it was a colourful, hippy-looking van with either a sunflower or a lion painted on the huge doors. She couldn't exactly tell which one it was, but she knew she'd rather eat her own foot than be seen in such an embarrassing vehicle.

Zoro, she noticed, was long gone. She couldn't find it in her heart to care much.

And then before she even realised it, everyone had left the parking lot. Even Usopp and Luffy had run through the large space in search for their own ride a couple minutes prior, having disappeared behind many other forms of transportation still parked. She hadn't even noticed that she'd been standing there by herself, just mulling over thoughts, and hoped she hadn't looked weird to any outsiders.

She heard a loud engine roar and a motorbike sped past, the hum of the engine evenly matched by familiar, obnoxious voices. From what she could tell, it had a happy-looking Ram's head on the front of it, and two absolute idiots riding it. Usopp on front, Luffy on the back. Luffy half leant off the bike as he turned back to Nami, waving crazily and shouting, "BYE-BYE NAMI!" as she finally mounted the waver. Then they were gone like everyone else, and she wondered if those two riding a motorbike was even safe. Not that Nami cared. She didn't even know the bozos.

The doors to Arlong Park opened once more, and the kid she had previously wanted to trip over exited with his assumed mother, being loud and annoying and reminding her of a certain someone with an ever-present straw-hat.

Nami never wanted children. But it looked like she'd landed herself one anyway.

Beli or not, she wasn't sure if this would be worth it, and she was beginning to realise why Gen and Nojiko had been questioning her motives earlier. With a defeated groan, she turned on the waver and rode out of the car park at breaking speeds, trying to reassure herself with some very comforting thoughts:

_Just think of the cute tops, Nami. Just think of the lace._

* * *

**That was my first chapter for my first One Piece story. I was going to make the first chapter much shorter than this, but it didn't exactly turn out that way. Oh well. Just a few things I want to clear up:**

**I couldn't help but resist to add in Nami's jumping - like, seriously, c'mon guys. The bitch jumps crazy as. During Cocoyashi Village, she jumped onto Merry from the docks or whatever, then in Water 7 she was jumping on roofs like a ninja, then in Thriller Bark she was holding like Usopp and shit and jumping around on pillars or something. It's crazay. Jumping is her talent, don't deny it.**

**This leads onto my next point - I'm currently only up to Thriller Bark, which is why if Brook seems... for lack of a better word, retarded, it's because I'm not heaps familiar with his character, so I do apologize in advance, but I'll hopefully finish the arc soon. It's pretty obvious why I haven't added in his Skull Jokes - he's not a skeleton. But stay tuned, I have shit up my sleeve for this later.**

**And another thing - I am aware Arlong Park is not in Loguetown. I am aware none of them actually live in Loguetown. I just thought it would be a good place to set the story, so that is why. Dum dum dum.  
**

**And finally, I do not plan ahead when I write. I kind of... go with the flow. I don't know how often my updates will be as a result. I'm currently in my final year of High School, shit is hektik as crud, and I have absolutely no logical explanation as to why I'm starting a story at this time. But I'll be finished School soon, and once I am, I'll defs update faster.**

**Hope people enjoyed. If you did so, leave a Review if you feel like it. Critique is always loved and appreciated. I don't care if you flame, it'll be funny.**

**Peace out, broskies.**


	2. Leather Bags and Questionable Fines

**Before I say anything: Shadow of Malice, look her up. Good writer. Actually, I'll put a link. u/1778260/Shadow-of-Malice**

**I also have put another story up. It's called "Stagnant". It revolves around Sanji and Zoro in a zombie apocalypse type world. If you're interested in that, I'd really appreciate it if you checked it out.**

**I apologize for the late update, I must say with regret that I'm too lazy for my own good. I also must confess that my exams are soon, and this might be the last update for a while. But I won't discontinue this story – it's only just beginning!**

******Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece, its plot or its characters. I own absolutely nothing except for this story, but full credit goes to Oda for actually owning One Piece.****  
**

* * *

A sandal-clad foot met asphalt with a loud and forceful crunch, loose tar and rock quickly becoming victims to the foot's monstrous wrath. The sandal unrelentingly began to crush both fragments further into the sticky earth when its wooden heel was forced to accommodate the weight of the foot's owner as she rose from her ride.

Slitted brown eyes swept across the car park murderously, before she retrieved the helmet from her red head, chucking it carelessly into the Wavers' hidden compartment under the seat and smacking it closed with an angry _thud_.

A once happy family of four looked warily over at the woman with the demonic aura, her body visibly bristling with bottled-up rage, and they shuffled in through Arlong Park's doors in a hurry before she could turn her evil-eye onto them as she had done so to the last three groups walking by.

Nami was just a wee bit unhappy that morning. Only a smidge.

"Nami?" A familiar, feminine voice called out, which forcefully stopped Nami from grinding her teeth down in rapid waves.

Long, flowing blue ponytail, dark blue eyes and a pleasant smile. Vivi, she recalled in dismay.

Nami plastered a painfully fake grin onto her face. "Oh, hi there, Vivi. You're early."

"As are you…" Vivi paused, a flash of uncertainty crossing through her eyes. "Is there something wrong? You're grinding your teeth together."

Nami immediately stopped again. "Oh, no, no, no, don't be silly. I'm quite good."

Vivi rolled her eyes and linked her arm through Nami's, offering that good-natured smile to her again, which surprisingly made Nami feel a little bit better. "I have a slight inkling that you're lying." With a gentle tug, she began to pull Nami through the doors of Arlong Park.

Nami sighed, defeated, almost immediately. "All right, you've talked me into it," She let out an exasperated noise, clutching to the blue-haired girl desperately. "Oh, it's terrible Vivi, absolutely terrible."

Vivi continued to lead her along towards the meeting area. "What is?" She inquired.

"It happened yesterday when I left Arlong Park. Oh, it just made me so mad…"

"What made you so mad?"

Nami opened her mouth to explain finally, when she caught a flash of red out of her peripheral, and her teeth clinked together so hard that Vivi herself was rattled by the painful noise.

The red-head's arm flew out at an inhuman speed; long, pink fingernails dug into a red vest and yanked the victim to a violent stop before he ran past completely. Luffy yelped and fell onto Nami's feet, his straw hat scraping against her legs before falling off of his dark head.

He tilted his head back, black strands tickling her knees, and like the day before, wide dark eyes met narrowed brown ones.

"Luffy." She seethed through clenched teeth.

"Ah, Nami." He greeted. "You're wearing clothes today."

And he was right. She wore shorts and a shirt over her bikini this time to evade the perverted eyes of Sanji and Brook.

Ignoring him, she yanked him up just as he grabbed his hat from the floor. He put it back on his head and looked at her innocently.

"What's up? I'm busy playing chasies with Chopper and Usopp." He grinned, then pointed to himself. "I'm _it_."

As if to reinforce this idea, Usopp promptly yelled from the other side of the big pool, "hurry up, Luffy! You need to catch us!"

"Yeah!" Agreed Chopper, little brown arms waving in glee.

Nami swung her head towards the two teenagers, silencing them with a brief, frightening look. When she felt Luffy attempt to walk away, she turned back to him immediately and hit him in the arm with a clenched fist.

"It's all your fault, you damn idiot!" She blurted out suddenly, leaving Luffy genuinely surprised and confused. She didn't allow him any time to comprehend the situation as she started to shake him by his shoulders with as much force as she could muster.

"You distracted me yesterday, you stupid, little, insufferable…!" She broke the sentence off, letting the silent insults hang thickly in the air.

Luffy's head sprung back and forth on his neck with each powerful shake as if it were made of rubber. The motion was a furious blur to those surrounding the onslaught, and the clearly PMS-ing woman was evidently not planning to stop anytime soon. Rather, the violence became worse as she shook him with one hand, and hit him with the other. If not for the sheer monstrosity of her actions, it would have been quite impressive.

Luffy, needless to say, was pretty screwed. Vivi, Usopp and Chopper were all a wee bit frightened by Nami's hulk-like attitude.

Luckily, the rescue team had arrived.

Long, slender arms seemed to appear out of nowhere, wrapping themselves around Nami's own arms in a tight fashion and pulling her away, much to the aggressive girls' chagrin as she kicked and screamed in a most childish of ways. Despite appearances, the arms were attached to a rather lithe of body's – A body, which belonged to none other than Nico Robin.

On Luffy's end, Zoro had appeared, and was hauling the poor, beaten boy to his feet. He made incoherent sounds around a swollen mouth, to which Zoro quirked a dark eyebrow, as it sounded much like babbling rather than formulated words.

Sanji, too, had made his arrival known as he turned on Luffy. "Oi, Luffy. What the hell did you do to piss lovely Nami-Swan off?"

The swelling had more or less began to fade – well, only slightly, but enough so that he could speak. Kind of.

"Nabi's scawy." He shuddered, not exactly answering Sanji's question at all.

_Nami's scary._

Not surprisingly, this only seemed to make Nami even more ferocious, and it took both Robin and Franky – Nami had no idea when he had gotten there – to hold her back. But as she surveyed the room in her angry stupor, she realised that everyone had shown up now – Kaya, Brook, the lot – and were staring at the scene unfold incredulously, worriedly or simply in a please-don't-turn-on-me-I-beg-of-you sort of way. As she was now the centre of attention, Nami decided to quieten down and attempted to get rid of her anger.

Her inner black self appeared in the back of her mind, with a very wise, "calm yo tits, girlfriend". This surprisingly helped, and Nami, somehow, 'calmed her tits'.

Brook was the first to break the silence with an awkward 'Yohohoho', a laugh everyone in the group were quickly acquainting themselves with. "My, my, everyone sure seems energetic this morning. What a good start to the day, and to the lesson."

Nami almost wanted to turn on him and beat him to a pulp, but decided to give up on the entire ordeal. Brook was just Brook, and Luffy wouldn't understand what he did wrong. With a pause, Nami even considered that she was being a bit harsh on the skinny kid, when it was probably more of her fault than his…

She snapped out of it. He'd distracted her, so of course it was his fault. If he weren't so stupid and loud and childish and ignorant it wouldn't have happened.

"I'm calm now," She muttered to her captors. "You can let go."

"Really?" Robin asked, in what Nami thought to be in a teasing way, as if she found Nami's completely understandable outburst as something that was quite humorous.

"Yes." Nami answered with as little impatience as possible, and then continued to calm herself down with the thoughts of swimming in Beli.

Franky seemed thankful at being out of the situation now, and clapped her on the shoulder as he released her from his muscly grip. "That was super impressive, sis. But you should just come to me whenever you're angry. I'll get you a cola, on the house. That always makes me feel like the week will turn out super after all."

She thanked him dryly as he marched over to see if Luffy was feeling hunky dory, and set her sights on Robin, who, too, was loosening the vice-like grip after accepting that Nami wasn't going to go all Mr. Hyde again.

Something else seemed to be plaguing Robin's mind as she smiled silently at Nami, then cut the icy-blue eyes to Luffy in a considering way. Nami was about to speak up, when Robin turned her attention back to the red-head, all contemplative air about her seemingly disappearing.

"So, why don't you explain to us what has happened? Perhaps then we can help you. Then we can get on with today's lesson." She inclined her head to Brook. "That won't be a problem, now will it, Brook-san?"

Brook had no complaints.

Nami puffed a strand of orange hair from her face, her lower lip jutting out in a pout cross a scowl. "Fine, I'll tell you. But it's all Luffy's fault, not mine."

Everyone settled in for the story, except for Zoro, who was already sleeping. Sanji gave him a violent kick to the guts, Zoro retaliated in smacking the blonde in the head with the blunt of one of his swords, they both exchanged violent curses, and after yet another outburst from Nami, they were extremely quiet. And so she began.

"I was driving home on my Waver-"

"What's a Waver?" Luffy asked and was instantly shushed by multiple people.

Rubbing her temples in an attempt to fight off an oncoming headache, Nami continued impatiently.

"As I was saying, I was driving home on my Waver, when I was pulled over by a cop." She clicked her tongue in annoyance, remembering the incident. "And shit hit the fan."

* * *

"Excuse me, ma'am, I'll have to ask you to step up from your _Ve-hi-cul_." The Cops pronunciation of the word was over-exaggerated, making the rather large, comb-moustached guy seem even dumber than was expected from an Average Joe, East Blue pig.

Nami, not too overjoyed at the whole predicament, didn't exactly feel like playing nice. She was feeling a bit naughty.

"Oh, Officer, have I done something wrong?" Nami feigned innocence, standing up as close as possible without being arrested, a hand on her hip.

"Well, little miss," He coughed, trying to hide his embarrassment at her obvious lack of clothing and hard-to-miss cleavage. "You were not wearing a helmet."

"Oh, dear," Nami wet her lips, staring at him through lidded lashes. "Is that all? But a helmet would ruin my hair." She twirled a short strand around her finger, and she fought with the urge to laugh.

_I've got you wrapped around my little finger, too._

The cop loosened his tie, clearing his throat. "Uh, yes, well – ahem." He took a step back, to which Nami followed. "A helmet is required on this sort of _Ve-hi-cul_."

Nami giggled, poking him on the chest, and moving all the more closer. "You are just the cutest thing."

"U-um, M-miss… Ma'am. I'll uh… have to ask you to step back please." He was visibly sweating by now. It took all Nami's willpower not to crinkle her nose in disgust at the scent of old man BO.

"Why?" She lifted his chin with her finger, scraping the underside of it with a manicured nail, flashing a sly smile. "You don't like it?"

"Holey dooley…" he breathed, then seemed to regain himself, moving away from her once more. "I'd like to see your licence."

Nami frowned. Her seductions usually worked by now. "Fine, let me just get it."

She turned around, bending over as much as possible to search for her bag in the Wavers' compartment. She could feel the cop's wide eyes practically burning a hole into her behind – she couldn't blame him, as she was only wearing a bikini of all things – and she decided to wiggle it around a little just to help her case all the more.

But then she stopped the flirtatious movements. Her hand thumped around in the compartment in search of her bag, but she felt no expensive leather bag reach her fingertips. Her hand thumped around more and she leaned in further, checking high and low and everywhere, the movements more erratic and panicked.

_Oh, no. _

Her bag was still in the locker of Arlong Park.

"Miss? Is there something wrong?"

She sprung up, turning to him. She forced the most flirtatious, sexiest, heart-thumping, groin-hardening, nosebleed inducing smoulder she'd ever pulled in her entire life, sat back on the Waver's seat invitingly, long legs half parted, and bit down on her lip lightly.

Oh, yeah. She bit her lip. Drastic times called for drastic measures, Nami supposed.

"Why don't we forget about the drivers licence, and go back to my place?" She played with her bikini strap idly, fluttering her eyelashes.

She'd distract him like this until he succumbed to her every desire, get him to follow her in his stupid car, lose him in some grungy neighbourhood, then head back to Arlong Park before it closed. The old fart wouldn't even have time to make note of the number plate.

Her plan ultimately and immediately backfired.

"Ma'am, are you trying to seduce me?" He wasn't looking at her anymore – he was staring very determinedly at the scenery behind her. "If so, that is an offence and I may have to give you a fine not only for not having a helmet, but also for mild sexual harassment of an officer." His eyes dropped to the ground, avoiding her at all times. "And if you do not have your licence on you, that is another fine."

Nami's jaw dropped in complete horror, her worst fears coming true all in one day._ Sexual harassment? _He was the one that had been ogling her!

"Wait a minute," She stood up. "I left my bag at Arlong Park, I swear I had it in here. I forgot it because I was…"

She blanched.

"You were what?"

Talking with Luffy.

"Being abused by a horrible, violent man. I had to run to escape. It was an honest mistake, officer."

"Well, you don't seem very upset about it." The cop sighed. "I'm sorry, you have no proof. You have no licence, no helmet, and no decency, Miss. I'm fining you a triple, here."

Nami almost cried at those words. He started filling out the tickets.

"And I just passed Arlong Park not long ago. It was closing up." He added. Nami heard the echo of her heart snap into two at his words.

He gave her the tickets. "You have two options here: I can either drop you home, and you can get someone to pick your scooter here up later, or you can walk it home." He then smirked, leaning closer to her, wiggling his thick eyebrows. "I can take you up on your earlier offer, now, though."

He was probably the most hypocritical person she had ever met.

Nami spun to face him, a scowl curving her lips downwards, and opened her mouth with a sharp intake of breath; a set list of foul-mouthed, bad mannered, mother-degrading and pig-likening insults at the ready–

That night, Nami pushed her Waver home alone with four tickets hanging out of her bikini top, freezing her ass off, ignoring the many horns and beeps and yells from passing cars. There was only one thought that kept her going forth in the treacherous endeavour to the outskirts of town where she lived, and stopping her from jumping from a bridge. It was this sole idea that made her push forward, so that she could see tomorrow, and see a certain someone.

_Luffy. I'm going to kick your ass._

* * *

A brief pause ensued as Nami shot a glare at Luffy, then she regarded everyone as equals once more.

"And then I had to borrow my sister's helmet." Nami concluded the story, and then took the time to take notice of the reactions. Most people had blanched and were pondering the story silently – including Luffy, surprisingly, who seemed to be in very deep thought – but there was always someone that had their opinion.

"You kind of brought it upon yourself, Nami." Usopp unhelpfully spoke up. He then paused, crinkling his long nose up in thought. "Where were the keys to your Waver if you left your bag here?"

With an annoyed sigh, Nami opened her mouth to explain, but Franky cut in before she could do so, pushing his dark glasses up onto his head with a grin.

"I have the answer to that. The Waver edition is a far superior model of the electric scooter, and as a result, has an even superior safety system. A key isn't required, but rather, a fingerprint scanner is installed on the interface to be able to start the engine." Franky smiled proudly as he supplied the information. "The Waver is a _Tom's Workers_ brand name scooter; the company I work at. Of course, you can add other fingerprints if someone else is in need of the ride, but it'll require the actual owner's input to do so. I wanted to add in a laser and a few missiles, but Iceburg wouldn't allow it."

This seemed to answer Usopp's question, as he quietened down, but now Nami's own curiosity had piqued. "Franky… did you invent The Waver?"

He shook his head. "Nah, Sis. I just helped work on it. The fingerprint system was all me, though. You'll find that a lot of scooters, motorbikes and water vehicles such as boats and jet-skis are from _Tom's Workers_, which means I've likely dabbled with them. Even a train or two, though cars are a small time kind of thing with us."

Nami found the information highly impressive. She'd heard of _Tom's Workers_ before, but she didn't know that when Franky had referred to "Tom and Iceburg" the previous day, that he meant THE Tom. But from her own knowledge, Tom from _Tom's Workers _had long passed away. She supposed only the workers, Franky and Iceburg, remained. She remembered reading an article on it once upon a time, and the name Cutty Flam danced in the back of her mind before she shoved it aside. She wasn't going to pry into his life.

Before Franky could continue speaking about his successes, Luffy suddenly made a loud whining sound, flopping down onto his back and kicking his legs around. He seemed totally oblivious to the conversation they had just been having.

"I don't see how it's my fault, Nami." He grumbled, rubbing at his stomach. "All this thinking is making me hungry."

So that's what he'd looked so deep in thought about before. He really was an idiot.

"Isn't it obvious? Because you distracted me from getting my bag!" She shrieked at him. "You picking your nose would distract anyone!"

"I can't help that my boogers don't want to leave my nose-cave." He frowned, then tried to get the rebellious teenager-like snot to move out of home once more. Luffy, obliviously, was met with a few disgusted glances.

Nami was quickly getting used to it.

"Anyway, it doesn't matter now. I'm going to get my bag." She turned away, and was immediately accompanied by Vivi, Kaya and Robin.

"We'll come, too. Let the boys bond a little bit." Kaya smiled gently, and the other two nodded in agreement. Nami didn't mind, and they all left, only to hear Zoro speak up, sounding disgruntled.

"Why do women always go to the bathroom in groups?"

Sanji, surprisingly, answered. "I like to think that they all go in there together because they enjoy secretly watching each othe-"

She couldn't hear the rest as the women walked further away, and she was kind of glad. She didn't want to know what Sanji thought they did.

"So, you're very… uhm, forward, aren't you, Nami?" Vivi asked as they made their way into the ladies room, twiddling her thumbs together. "Like, with that officer you mentioned…"

"You mean, sexually?" Nami grinned slyly, wagging a finger. "Women are bestowed with these gifts for a reason, Vivi, dear. It's best to use your sexuality for the things you want before your endowments become all saggy."

Vivi and Kaya seemed embarrassed at this information, whereas Robin only chuckled.

"So, you shouldn't use your sexuality towards someone you love, is what you are saying?" The dark-haired woman queried, sounding innocent enough, but Nami could hear the deeper meaning behind the words. "A woman's sexuality should only be used in achieving her every desire?"

Nami made her way over to the locker, starting to twist the combination without much thought. "I don't believe in love, so yes, that's how I view things. But don't get me wrong, ladies – if you're into the drama of romance, by all means, you should show the sexual side of yourself to the person you love. I just wouldn't want to show such a vulnerable side to someone, in my own personal opinion."

Before Robin could rely, the door to the locker swung open after the final combination click, and Kaya, Vivi and Robin peered in alongside Nami.

The rusted locker held a speck of dust and a tiny spider web in the corner, which Nami hadn't noticed before. She reached in, her hand, similar to the previous night, thumped around the entire space for her bag. Her hand made clanging sounds as it was met with the cold feel of metal.

The locker was empty.

* * *

"I was on my way here and I went to buy another packet of cigarettes beforehand, so I pulled up, went in and bought the pack – guy serving was shitty and rude, too, and obviously wouldn't know how to handle a lady if he had the chance. Anyway, I step out, okay? And what do you know, across the street I see the damn Marimo-"

"Shut up, dart-brow." Zoro seethed, glaring heavily at Sanji, who puffed on a cigarette as he spoke.

"-and he's just standing there, scratching his green fuzz of a head, looking around like a lost puppy. And so I go over to see just what the hell he's doing, and he's all," Sanji jutted his chin out, glaring at everyone in a mock Zoro attempt, and put on a deeper voice: "hurr I'm Zoro and I'm looking for Arlong Park over in the marketplace, right beside the vegetable stand, on the other side of town."

Zoro knocked him over with a sword. "Shut the fuck up, it's not funny." His face was crimson.

The group of boys were laughing hysterically despite this.

"Zoro, bro, you should have told us you were directionally-challenged. We could have given you a map or something!" Franky bellowed out, smacking the floor in laughter. "I could even get you a good GPS from work!"

Zoro was finding it difficult in glaring at every single person at the same time.

Sanji finally up-righted himself again, snickering at Zoro's expression. "So I had to let the poor shit-head into my car. I'll have to vacuum and clean it now; the head-rest of the passenger seat is probably stained in green."

Luffy, Usopp and Chopper found this particularly amusing and laughed even harder, rolling around on the ground.

Brook spoke up, "Perhaps, Sanji-san, you should do the honours of being his chauffer."

"Eh?" Sanji's uncovered eye bulged. "Me? No way. Not for him."

Zoro gave a curt nod of agreement with Sanji. "I can handle myself."

Sanji turned to him, and said in a deadpanned way, "You were looking under an orange for Arlong Park."

"Shut the hell up, you damn love-cook!"

"Hey, the girls are back!" Chopper spoke up excitedly as he noticed all four girls arriving once more. "Did you find the bag?"

As Robin made her way back over with the other three, she knelt down in front of the youngest member and placed a finger to her lips. "Shh, okay?" She smiled as Chopper shrunk back a bit from her. "Miss Navigator is a bit fragile at the moment."

Chopper, a bit confused, nodded back.

"Let's start the lesson." Nami ordered abruptly, slitting her eyes towards Brook murderously.

He noticeably edged a bit away from Nami, but nodded in agreement.

"The first step is getting your Learner used to the water. We'll all start at the low-end of the pool." He spared a glance at Zoro and Chopper. "Perhaps, Zoro-san, you should take Chopper to the baby pool."

Chopper looked hurt, but Zoro stepped in defiantly, arms crossed in a challenging way. "Chopper's small, but he's a man. He'll be fine." He spared a glance at the small kid. "Right?"

Chopper nodded enthusiastically, positively beaming at being treated as an equal.

Many swimsuits and floatation devices equipped later, the lesson belatedly began.

* * *

"In order to swim, you must be comfortable with the water. Water is your friend, your buddy, your pal, your mate, your nakama. _Feel_ the water. _Move_ with the water. _Become_ the water. Only then will you master swimming."

At least, that was what Brook had said – rather, he read from a piece of paper that he had printed fresh that morning. He obviously believed in the mantra so strongly, however, that he even began to sing it, but in a melancholic, depressing sort of way – claiming that it would inspire the Learners to "try their best".

"Yohohoho~ feel the water. Yohohoho~ move with the water. Yohohoho~ become the water. Yohohoho..."

And more or less, it had worked. All the groups had split up in the shallow end of the big pool, which was thankfully just big enough to accommodate everyone in the one end, but give some extra space at the same time. As Brook sang by the pool with his signature violin, the Learners had waded themselves in knee to waist deep, trying to get used to the dangerous liquid which could potentially kill them if they were silly. But no one acted that reckless and most were doing quite well to familiarise themselves as they spoke amongst their mentors.

Everyone except for Luffy.

He was drowning for the third time since they had set foot into the pool, and it was grating on Nami's nerves. She had no idea how drowning for him was even possible because, for one, he was wearing an unceremonious amount of floaties on his arms and even had a floaty jacket – and two, he was standing – not floating, _standing_ – feet touching the ground, and everything. But he just kept falling under for some reason. Nami couldn't understand how such a kid wanted to be the Pirate King.

"GLUB, GLUB, HELP, NAMI, URK."

She considered leaving him to drown, but decided a body on her hands wouldn't fare well. Besides, she was being paid for this. She grabbed his arm and yanked him over to the pools' stairs. He sat on them, panting and wheezing and coughing up water like he was completely made of it.

"Are you okay, Luffy?" She asked, but she didn't really care. She had other things to worry about. For example, where the hell her extremely expensive bag was. Perhaps it was in the lost and found after the cleaners had taken it? That was a likely assumption, but she felt nauseous in her stomach. Her money, her licence, her cards, her phone, her house keys (it was lucky Nojiko had been home last night to let her in), a few of her maps – they were all in that bag. She needed it back. Pronto.

Pronto meaning after the lesson.

"Yeah, thanks, Nami." He nodded, hooting out a laugh once he was okay. But he looked over and noticed her expression. "Are _you_ okay?"

_How perceptive of you to notice_, she thought dryly.

"Yes, Luffy. Now get up, we need to stop you from drowning- and why the hell are you wearing your hat in the pool?" She only just noticed it, dangling from his neck by the thin piece of white string.

He blinked. "I'm not wearing it. It's off my head."

"Yes, but-"

She was cut off by Brook beginning to clap his bony hands. She hadn't even noticed he'd stopped singing. "Well done, everyone! Have we all gotten used to the water without trouble?"

There were a few murmured "Yes's" amongst the groups, when Nami cleared her throat.

"Actually, Luff-"

She was cut off again by Brook who either did not hear her or pretended not to hear her. She had a hunch that it was the latter.

"Wonderful, wonderful! Well, before we progress further, there is something I'd like you all to partake in. The Learners cannot learn to swim if they do not trust their Mentors. As a result, we will do some exercises to increase those bonds."

Nami couldn't say that she liked where this was going. After all, yesterday's "bonding time" hadn't gone exactly to plan, either.

Brook, on the other hand, looked absolutely ecstatic about what he was about to say. "It'll be quite fun. It's more like a game."

This factor made Luffy, Usopp and Chopper all quite enthusiastic themselves. Franky, even for a man in his mid thirties, was excited about the proposition of a game.

"We'll have a race, across the width of the low end of the pool." He then chuckled, as if he knew something that they didn't. "There is a catch, though."

_Here we go._

"The Mentors will be the ones to race while holding the Learners on their shoulders-

_There it is. _

-The aim is to wade to the other end before any other team, and to keep your Learner dry. Remember – if you drop your Learner, they may possibly drown! So don't do that!"

Brook didn't sound too affected by the proposition of someone drowning. He sounded quite cheerful, actually, and Nami realised that the entire exercise was absurd. She was the only female Mentor amongst her companions; it would be harder for her to carry Luffy, even if he was a skinny little runt.

"This is a bit unfair on my part, don't you agree, Brook?" She interjected his explanation scornfully.

"There will be a prize of one thousand Beli, if that helps." Brook quickly supplied.

It did help. Nami's head snapped towards Luffy, who was still sitting on the stairs. "Luffy, dumb-ass, get the hell onto my shoulders. We're going to win this. You hear me? This is like a race to get the buried treasure. Stop dawdling and let's go make you a real pirate."

This got Luffy into gear as he launched himself off the stairs and onto her back like a monkey. With surprising agility, he crawled up onto her shoulders, his foot knocking her in the ear.

"MUSH, NAMI-HORSE!" He screamed, tugging on her short pigtails like they were reigns. "CHARGE!"

"Ow, ow, moron!" She hissed, holding onto the top of his thighs in an attempt to keep him still and to balance herself at the same time. "He hasn't told us to go yet!"

As they argued, and Luffy kept telling her to dance like a pony, in which she replied that ponies don't dance, the remaining teams started to get into positions for the water race that they would all participate in. What Brook was not expecting to come out of the playful event, however, was the competitive streak coursing through everyone.

Zoro and Sanji (amongst nose bleeding from having Vivi on his shoulders) were sending each other threatening looks, and Usopp seemed to want to impress Kaya so he too was challenging everyone in his sights. Franky claimed that he was feeling especially super that week, and so it was likely that no one had a chance against him. Nami and Luffy were both incredibly riled up, for their different reasons. Once Luffy had stopped pretending Nami was a horse, they both made quite the viscous team.

"You kids have nothing on us." Nami spat in the direction of the other teams, a threatening, sadistic smile on her face. "You're a million years too young, and too poor."

Luffy backed her up with his own, equally threatening grin of malice. "I'll beat down anyone who steps in our way." He put his hat on top of his head, the black strands covering the dark glint in his eyes. "Let's win this, Nami."

"Aye, aye, Cap'n." The words left her mouth without her even noticing. She was far too riled up, adrenaline coursing through her veins, like she'd just skulled a few too many Red Bulls. She was excited; anticipating the race like her life depended on it. For a moment, she pondered whether this was what Luffy felt like all the time, as he seemed to put his heart and soul into every little thing that he did, energy always filling him completely.

She liked the feeling.

"On your marks…" Brook played a sharp note on his violin, making his volunteers fall into a tense, but excited silence. Anticipation hung thickly in the air.

"Get set…" Nami's legs didn't bunch tightly as if she was going to run, like the other males were doing. They seemed to forget they were all in water, and attempting to run was not on the smart agenda. Robin seemed to understand this, too, as she whispered something inaudible to Franky, who promptly stood to his full height. Nami's hands clutched Luffy's legs, however, making sure she would definitely not drop him.

"Hold onto me tightly, Luffy," she whispered to the side of her mouth. His arms wound around the top of her head tightly, and he made a determined noise of agreement in the back of his throat. His hold was uncomfortable, but she didn't yell at him; he didn't exactly have anywhere else to hold onto.

With a quirky, lopsided grin, Brook opened his mouth once more, his violin at the ready-

"Go!"

Everyone moved.

The music began, a violin version of the Benny Hill song, which was quite comical to the situation.

Water splashed and sprayed as numerous feet began to slosh towards the single objective in a determined and slightly panicked flurry.

Usopp was the first down as he attempted to run through the water, which very quickly pushed him back as his legs couldn't fight against the mass of thick liquid. He flew forward, screaming in a high-pitched way, and Kaya tumbled off of his shoulders, giggling and screaming at the same time. They both crashed into the water with a violent splash, but Usopp wasted no time in scooping Kaya up in his arms, asking if she was okay dramatically, even though she had managed to right herself.

Zoro and Sanji were neck and neck with each other, shoulder-to-shoulder, noses almost touching as one glared at the other, not even watching where they were going. Sanji moved fluidly in the water, with the utmost grace of a dancer. Zoro was the opposite, as he practically forced the water to move around him with sheer physical prowess alone. They growled and cursed at each other, elbows digging into ribs, legs trying to trip the other over. They became the downfall of the other as they were too caught up to listen to either Chopper or Vivi. Sanji tripped Zoro and Zoro pushed Sanji. They both went down, sinking like bricks, dragging Vivi and Chopper into their inevitable demise.

At long last, the race became two on two – Franky and Robin against Nami and Luffy. A battle of brains and brawn ensued.

Franky was at a clear advantage, almost arriving at the winning destination. While his torso and arms were large, fit for holding Robin with complete ease, he was thin in the legs. In a way that was similar to Sanji's, he was able to move with a sort of fluid motion, which enabled him to wade amongst the push of water. With Robin to guide him in how to move against the forever moving liquid, their team was practically impossible to beat.

Nami, compared to Franky, was weak in every way possible. Luffy was weighing her down, and his arms kept slipping into her ray of vision whenever he loosened his hold just the slightest. Franky's legs were longer than hers, and looked a whole lot better in a speedo than hers did. She felt a pang of jealousy, and mid-wade took a moment she didn't have to gaze wistfully at his good-lookin', hunkaspunk legs.

"Nami, you're losing!" It was Luffy, drumming on her head.

She panted heavily, moving sloppily through the water, attempting to pass Franky to no avail. "I think it's going to remain that way, Luffy. I'm not built for this."

She felt his breath on her ear. "Are you giving up?"

Nami watched Franky practically skating through the water with ease, a smug look on both his face and Robin's, though Robin's was subtler. But it was there, in her eyes.

Nami set her jaw tightly, mulling over an idea in her head. "No." Her own stern and steady voice surprised her. "You said you wanted to see me jump again, right?"

Luffy's melodic, contagious laugh answered the question for her.

She leapt through the water. She couldn't really call it a leap, to be honest, or even a jump – not like the one she performed over the pool. It was impossible for her to jump out of the water while it was high to her waist, completely submerging her legs. It was more like she glided, the water circled back around at the movement, slapping into her from behind, propelling her ever so slightly forward at each water submerged leap. She felt like a Ballerina, and smiled at the thought. The smile turned into a toothy grin, then quickly evolved into uncontrollable fits of laughter as she continued to leap, glide, or whatever it was called.

_Feel the water. Move with the water. Become the water._ If she had a second to think, that would be exactly what she was doing.

Luffy was cheering, trying to pedal his feet in the water to help her out. She could feel his chest against her back, rising and falling as he, too laughed.

Even as Franky's hand slapped down onto the cool tile of the other end, and hers mimicked his movements a mere second after his, she kept laughing, Luffy's own laughter chorusing her own.

She was having so much fun that it was almost criminal. She couldn't remember the last time she had felt so enthralled, so energized, so powerful, so…

_Happy_.

Luffy climbed off of her and onto solid ground. He looked down at her, a "_Shishishi"_ passing through his lips. She couldn't help but grin back and think – _we actually make a pretty good team._

A cluster of people from the program went to congratulate Franky and Robin on their victory, and Brook had started to shake their hands, holding a small bag of Beli out for them to claim as their own.

But Luffy lingered, rather than joining the celebration. He leant down, offering a lightly tanned, calloused hand to Nami.

"Nami should laugh more often. I like it." The words were honest, sincere.

She took his hand after a pause, thinking that maybe he wasn't such an idiot after all.

* * *

Nami rapped on the door, the words "Arlong Park Management Office" printed boldly on the wood. After a couple more hours of saving Luffy from drowning, she had made an obvious beeline towards the office door, in hopes that her bag had been saved – not before receiving payment from Brook, though, which all the mentors would get after every weekend. Robin, however, had tagged along briefly.

"You should be more patient with Luffy," She had said politely. "You are both a lot more alike than you would originally think."

And then she had left Nami alone, completely unsure of what the words meant. Luffy and her were completely different. For one, she was intelligent. Luffy was not. But she pushed the advice to the back of her mind, and set herself upon the task of getting her bag back.

The door swung open with a creak, and a long, blue-tinged face became visible in the dimly lit room. The man was large, with strong shoulders, a thick neck, and the weirdest nose she had ever seen. Even Usopp's comically long nose was second to it. It was probably even longer than Usopp's, but threateningly sharp and jagged. He wore an open, Hawaiian shirt, khaki pants and flip-flops. The man was obviously not dressed to impress.

He peered down at Nami with beady eyes. Something like recognition passed through his sharp features before disappearing, and his lips drew back in a smirk.

"Yes?" His voice was like a razor blade. It sent chills up her spine, but she kept a straight face.

It was straight down to business. "I left a bag in one of the women's lockers yesterday, and it seems I forgot to pick it back up before I left. I looked in the locker today and it was not there anymore. Would it have been possible that one of the cleaners had taken it and handed it in?"

He seemed to think for a moment. "That's quite troubling for you, I suppose. Why don't you come in, take a seat? I believe I do recall seeing a bag in the lost and found box." He opened the door just wide enough for her to slip in. He smelled of salt water and seafood. It was weird.

The door closed with a loud click, and the man gestured to a seat. She put on a fake smile and sat in the seat, but surveyed him with watchful eyes. He made his way across the room, towards a box that sat on top of a filing cabinet. It had the words "Lost & Found" scribbled untidily on it in permanent marker.

"Name is Arlong. I own the place, hence the name." He grabbed the box and sat it on top of his messy desk. He looked up at her, as if he expected her to introduce herself.

"Nami," she replied curtly, and sat up straight to get a better look at what was in the box.

"Take a look through, see what you find, Nami." He sat down in his own chair, crossing one weirdly coloured leg over the other. She wondered if the blue pool-dye had stained his skin.

She did as she was told, though. She took out some items that didn't belong to her to dig deeper, such as a hat and a porno magazine.

_Gross._

Then she saw it, and she nearly cried. She yanked the bag out with tremendous force, hugging it to her bosom. "Yes, yes, thank you!"

He continued to smirk at her with predatory eyes. "I'm glad I've helped you, Nami."

"You really have. I'm so glad to have it back." She opened it, filing through the contents to make sure everything was there. House keys, a couple maps, licence, her wallet with correct amount of money, sunglasses – she'd forgotten that they were in there – cards and a phone. Something nagged at the back of her mind, but she pushed it off. Everything important was there, at least.

"Well if you lose anything else at all, don't hesitate to come back." The offer was polite enough, but it made her feel uneasy. She was glad that she put her clothes back on, at least.

Nami nodded and rose from the rickety seat. "All right, thanks again, uh, Arlong."

"I'm sure we'll see one another again very soon."

She nodded with a tight smile, and left.

A sigh escaped her as the door clicked closed behind her. She felt, oddly enough, better with a door between them. She didn't even know the guy, and he seemed polite enough. She was turning crazy.

Placing the bag strap over her shoulder, feeling content once more, she left Arlong Park completely, mulling over how to spend her new twenty-thousand Beli, before remembering her numerous amount of fines with disgust.

Arlong listened to Nami's sandals tap away until he heard them no longer, unable to keep the toothy grin from occupying his face. Pulling a key from his pocket, he unlocked the first drawer of his desk, pulling out a medium sized piece of parchment.

It was an unfinished, but fairly detailed map of the East Blue Sea. In the bottom right hand corner, the name _Nami _was scrawled neatly in cursive. He brushed his long, rough, bejewelled fingers over the ink signature, and repeated the name out loud.

"Nami," In a fluid motion, he ripped the bottom right corner with the signature off, stripping the map of its owner completely. "My, what an interesting ability you have."

* * *

**Uh oh SPAGHETTIOS.**

**I'm going to apologize right now for my lack of knowledge on Beli currency. I'm pulling everything out of my arse as I write. I've looked it up a bit and researched what some things cost in the One Piece universe, but it doesn't make sense to me really. As a result, you get what you get. I don't think Beli currency will determine the outcome of this story, so it honestly shouldn't matter.**

**Anyway, on the ending: Nami, while still in the pool, said she had a "few" maps in her bag, which I take is around about three. When she looked in the bag when she found it, she noticed "a couple" of maps, which is two. You see where I'm gettin' at? Just thought I'd clear that up in case people were like "omigod why does Arlong have one of her maps when they were in her bag still?!". Answer is that she had three. He took one. She forgot, didn't notice. WAH-LAH.**

**Anyway, review, favourite, follow, whatever you feel like - that is, if you enjoyed the story. Critique is especially welcome. Flames - if you really want to, go for it. Flames are hilarious.**


	3. Authors Note: Final Examinations

Dear faithful readers,

I'd like to apologize because this is not a chapter; this is an author's note. I, myself, hate when I go to read an "updated" story to find that it's only an author's note, but sometimes it has to be done.

At the beginning of this story (which was not too long ago) I mentioned that I am in my last year of high school. To clarify, I have officially graduated my school now, and have been on "holidays" these past couple of weeks. I'll get to the point – after tomorrow my final exams will begin.

Which is why I have to tell you all that I won't be updating for a little bit. I've already written this on my profile, but I don't think people look at my profile too often, so here we go again. My exams start on the 15th of October, ugh, and my last exam is on the 5th of November. I have six exams to do in this time frame, but they are quite spread out actually, as I have three in the first week, then I have one each week for the rest of the time. Because I will have a bit of time after the first week to myself, I may use it to update this story. This is not guaranteed though because I'm lazy and I'll be panicking about exams, but it certainly is possible.

Either way, my point is, it'll probably be over a month before I update again because I'll do my exams, then I'll need some time to chillax, then I need to search for a job, and then when I do start writing, the chapter will probably be another 13-15 pages, so that in itself will take a while.

That sounds like a really long time to me, which makes me uneasy, because I want to update fast. So I am going to try and update during my free time amidst examinations. I do have the time; it just depends on how my stress levels are. I'll seriously try to update quicker than over a month. But for now, I don't know. This was a horrible and messy explanation. Sorry guys.

Anyway, I'll let you guys know when my exams are done on my profile and how far into SFSH I am. I don't want to lose any readers but sometimes it can't be helped. But I'll delete this A/N when I do update finally, and I definitely hope that this update won't be too far away – I'll have to make the chapter extra amazing or something. In the meantime, you should checkout Pewdiepie or ChaoticMonki on youtube. That's how I get through the day, at least.

Thanks for your time! Toodles.


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